This sounds like a much more likely explanation. So, do the Toyotas -- like the Audis -- have smaller brake pedals? And how did they prove that this was what was happening with the Audis?<br clear="all"><br>-- Don<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 9:26 PM, Jeff Younker <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:jeff@drinktomi.com">jeff@drinktomi.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">

So, I&#39;m very skeptical that there is actually a sudden acceleration problem with Toyotas. I say this based on history.<br>
<br>
The last time it was the Audi sudden acceleration problem. Audis were leaping through garages., and they were accelerating into intersections.<br>
<br>
The DOT put a lot of money and time into investigating the problem. What they found was basically this:<br>
<br>
The economy sucked, so people traded in their big American cars for the smaller more gas efficient cars. In particular they were trading in for Audis.<br>
<br>
American cars have much bigger brake pedals. In these cars many people, under normal driving conditions, rest their foot on the left side of the pedal. However under certain conditions, say an emergency stop, they slam their foot down an inch or two to the right of that. In an American car, an inch or two from the rest position is still the brake pedal. However in an Audi (or most other foreign cars) this is the gas pedal.<br>

<br>
What the driver experiences is that instead of slamming to a stop, the car leaps forward. At this point the driver&#39;s well honed reactions start running on autopilot. There is no conscious intervention. Their body is telling them that they are pressing the brake, but the car is going faster, so they keep slamming their foot on the &quot;brake&quot; and the car keeps leaping forward, or they keep pressing harder on the brake and the car keeps going faster.<br>

<br>
At least that was the problem with Audis.<br>
<br>
So here we are again in a time in which people are trading their big american gas guzzlers for small fuel efficient cars. And again the most popular of these cars are having mysterious sudden acceleration problems.<br>
<br>
What I&#39;d love to see is the brake-down on the incidents including the length of time the driver had been driving the car, and the previously owned model of car. That might really tell us something.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
-jeff<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
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